{When Our Plans Are Thrown Crazily Out of Loop}

My schedule for list Tuesday included:

Devotions
Finish all written assignments {history}
Make Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Learn A major chord
CD for Mrs. Gol----
5 gifts

Do you also see how almost nothing's crossed off?

sigh.

Tuesday morning I was making smoothies for breakfast. Nothing too abnormal about that, right? I sent Jenna out to the garage freezer for some blueberries and turned on the blender. J came back, and said we had a problem. Ellie had left the freezer door cracked the night before and the freezer... wasn't cold. And neither was most of our food.

double sigh.

The kiddos drank their smoothies while Mom and I went out to access the damage. The completely full freezer had thawed raspberry juice dripping down onto every shelf, one could actually poke the squishy meat, and a container of ice cream looked more like milk.

triple sigh.

We threw out 16 cups of cooked, diced chicken, all the raspberries, 16 hamburger patties, a few bags of corn and that ice cream. We decided to keep all the blueberries and all the jam.

That left us with 6 roasts and 3 packages of stew meat, all 75% thawed.  We buy our beef in bulk. :)

Momma and I spent the rest of the morning cleaning the freezer, calling neighbors to borrow crockpots, picking up crockpots in the wagon, mixing up recipes and browning stew meat. That afternoon, I began to see the comedy in the situation when our counter looked like this:

There was stew meat, shredded BBQ beef, beef for Beef and Noodles, and a roast in the oven.

But there were positives to the situation. I started counting them and before long, I was adding them to the list. 

1. That we caught this before all of our food was ruined

2. The fact that we were able to save the jam and blueberries

3. We now have several meals already cooked and in the freezer

4. Our freezer has never been this clean!

5. Our freezer was actually pretty empty- by the end of the year, it will be full to the brim with our new 1/2 cow, around 40 pounds of blueberries, fresh freezer jam, more chicken and who knows what else! God had a perfect time planned for this to happen.

6. The fact that...

 My history assignments didn't get done. (They actually still aren't.) I was worn out of kitchen work and so didn't make the muffins.  I don't know the A major chord for the guitar, and Mrs. Gol----'s cd still isn't in the mail. 

BUT...

My schedule was thrown out for God's schedule.

and maybe that's worth a sigh of delight.

Beginning the Count...

I've wanted to do this for a while... start a list of one thousand gifts that God has blessed me with. Breanne and I decided to do it together- keep each other accountable. I made us matching books and viola! We had a project! I started tonight and my list keeps on growing.

1. The Redeeming Grace of Jesus Christ
2. Parents teaching us to trust the Lord
3. All eight of my brothers and sisters
4. The knowledge that 3 of them are safe in the arms of Jesus forever
5. A community that is so supportive of homeschooling
6.  My beloved HPA
7. The first weekend of Fiddler shows going well- To God be the Glory!
8. Twin girls sitting on my floor strumming away at the guitars and singing their little hearts out
9. The best friends in the entire world
10. Three friends praying with me at different times on Saturday- Katherine, Katie and Andy
11. Hannah calling up the stairs "Yinds! Where are you?"
12. My little yellow camera, whose lens captures memories never worth forgetting
13. Teachers who understand the craziness of show week and extend grace- and deadlines.
14. Kari Jobe's "Steady My Heart" in moments when my heart needs steadying
15. Writing gifts with my "----------- Lawncare" pen
16. A 15 minute conversation with John about his growing business
17. A {really} great score on my narrative paper returned today

 

{Will it be every Monday I share here? I don't know. I'm hoping it keeps me accountable, but I'm holding myself to a standard of grace, not perfection.}

After All the Hairspray Washes Out...

On Saturday, my family was so blessed to attend the wedding of Miss Elizabeth, our darling, gorgeous, assistant director for HPA. Now I haven't been to a wedding in 6-7 years, but I don't think I'm biased when I say that it had to have been one of the most beautiful weddings ever.

Now I don't have pictures. (Sorry, Josh!) I know, what blogger goes anywhere without her camera? Obviously this one. But one of my best friends took tons and I'll try to post some of those... maybe.

So today I'm counting wedding gifts, like so many others.

87. The thrills of excitement pulsing through out our house as we got ready

88. A new dress that I love

89. Hugs from the "D" family and Brooklyn as soon as we arrived

90. Josh escorting us to our seats really early, so we could sit and talk and plan and giggle.

91. Beautiful harp music 

92. Sarah Grace's encouraging words to the ring bearer and flower girls as they came down the aisle

 93. Beautiful vows

94. The bride and groom washing eachother's feet
95. The tears that were shed
96. In Christ Alone- I love that song!

97. Talking to Jenna back by the punch table.

98. Seeing friends who I hadn't seen in so long, such as Zach and Arie, Brooklyn, Libby, Genevieve, Mr. Cole and Annie.

99. Delicious cake :)

100. Hugging the bride
101. Utter happiness
102. The glee of our secret as we lined the halls
103. The look on Courtney's face when she squealed "Don't stop! Keep talking!"
104. The Wedding version of "So Long, Farewell" and "Farewell, Titanic"
105. The joy on their faces
106. The releasing of lanterns- in Tangled fashion
107. The screams and cheers and "We love you"s that followed their car
108. Goodbye hugs
109. A ride home

This painting made me smile, as I had two little three year olds watching me get ready. :)

I'm going to try to edit the song video we got and I'll try to get those pictures too! :)